by Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n
FrontPageMagazine.com<\/p>\n
Watching Obama\u2019s recent journeys to Europe and Latin America, I was reminded of actress Sally Field\u2019s embarrassing acceptance speech at the 1985 Academy Awards: \u201cI’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect,\u201d she gushed to her colleagues, adding in the same needy vein, \u201cI can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!\u201d The Obama administration and its media supporters have been behaving like Fields, so pleased and relieved that after eight years of Bush-generated anti-Americanism, the world once again likes us.<\/p>\n
Of course, lost in this delight are some critical points. The President\u2019s foreign policy responsibility is not to be liked, but to look after America\u2019s interests. The love-fest in Europe has not resulted in our NATO allies making anything other than cosmetic changes to its half-baked support of our efforts in Afghanistan. American troops will continue to bear the lion\u2019s share of the burden of fighting and dying, while Europeans train policemen. Obama\u2019s handshake with Hugo Chavez will not stop that autocrat from working against our interests by buddying up with Iran, a state that has the blood of American soldiers on its hands, or by fomenting revolution in neighboring Columbia. Nor will that embarrassing bow to Saudi Arabia\u2019s King Abdullah convince the Saudis to stop funding terrorists or to reform a school system that preaches jihadist intolerance and hatred. And of course, the overtures to Iran will not convince the mother-ship of jihad from abandoning its pursuit of nuclear weaponry and Israel\u2019s destruction. Obama has forgotten Hamlet\u2019s wisdom that \u201cOne may smile, and smile, and be a villain.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, the nations of the world will continue to pursue their interests, many of which run counter to ours. Their behavior is not going to be changed by cosmetic public relations gestures or by legitimizing autocratic regimes by cozying up with dictators. Worse yet, the groveling apologies that have issued from the \u201cleader of the free world\u201d will not give \u201cgreater moral force and clarity,\u201d as the President claimed, to our criticisms of human-rights violations or support for terror and revolution. On the contrary, donning the hair shirt of American guilt will only damage our prestige and tell the world that we are weak, that despite our power and wealth we can be had. France\u2019s President Sarkozy said as much in his off-the-record critique of Obama\u2019s performance when he called Obama \u201cWeak, inexperienced, and badly briefed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Obama and his team, however, have a bigger problem than inadequate briefings: an apparent ignorance of human nature and history. They have endorsed the E.U. approach to foreign relations: global conflict can be managed and reduced not by unilateral force but by multilateral, transnational institutions that constrain individual nations and subject them to international norms. These norms favor diplomatic discussion and international institutions that promote tolerance, peace, and mutual respect, all directed towards acknowledging and correcting grievances. This ideal, however, is based on a Western Enlightenment view of human nature that assumes all peoples and regimes want and respect the same things we do, such as freedom, peace, tolerance, and affluence, and that they fear what we fear, violence and conflict. And it assumes that most people are essentially rational and thus amenable to rational persuasion.<\/p>\n
Even a casual survey of actual human and state behavior reveals that this ideal is delusional. The old master, Thucydides, is closer to the mark: nations are driven by irrational motives such as fear, interest, and honor, and people by nature are subject to what Thucydides called \u201cimperious necessities,\u201d drives, impulses, and passions constantly chafing against the limits imposed by law. When the law weakens, those \u201cnecessities\u201d will ignite destructive behavior that will not be restrained by rational discussion or acknowledgment of grievances. Nor do all peoples necessarily desire peace and freedom: they also desire to be right with God, or to be secure, or to achieve revenge, or increase their power and status. And they are willing to use violence to achieve all these aims.<\/p>\n
And when such states are too weak to achieve such aims, diplomatic dialogue and dickering become a means for biding their time or extracting concessions from more powerful states. That\u2019s why militarily weak states, such as those in the E.U., are great champions of diplomacy and transnational institutions, and criticize the use of force in global affairs \u2014 not on principle, but expediency. As Robert Kagan writes, \u201cBecause they are relatively weak, Europeans have a deep interest in devaluing and eventually eradicating the brutal laws of an anarchic Hobbesian world where power is the ultimate determinant of national security and success.\u201d Unfortunately, we still live in a Hobbesian world filled with states such as Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Venezuela that have shown their contempt for the non-violent mechanisms and values of international institutions, and that are willing to use force both conventional and unconventional to achieve their interests. In such a world, only the military power of the United States maintains enough order in the world for the global economy to function and create the wealth subsidizing E.U. idealism. After all, it\u2019s not the E.U. Parliament or the U.N. that keeps the oil flowing to Europe through the Straits of Hormuz. It\u2019s the U.S. Sixth Fleet.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that there is not a need for diplomacy, negotiation, or sanctions to change state behavior. But such non-military instruments of persuasion must be used from a position of strength, and with the certainty that military power will be used to enforce agreements and punish those who break them. Otherwise, as Hobbes wrote, \u201cCovenants without the sword are but words, and of no strength to secure a man at all.\u201d The sorry record of diplomacy, sanctions, and international institutions in stopping the slaughter in Rwanda, Darfur, Congo, and numerous other conflicts proves the truth of Hobbes\u2019 wisdom.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s no surprise that the world is delighted with our new president. Rather than projecting strength and a willingness to defend and promote America\u2019s interests, he is eager to validate the criticisms of states that are our rivals or enemies. Where liberals see a more sophisticated and nuanced approach to global affairs, one that dismisses the crude moral tone of George Bush, these states see a weakness to be exploited in order to achieve their own national interests, which necessarily must often conflict with ours. Weakening America\u2019s security is too large a price to pay for transient popularity.<\/p>\n
\u00a92009 Bruce S. Thornton<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Bruce S. Thornton FrontPageMagazine.com Watching Obama\u2019s recent journeys to Europe and Latin America, I was reminded of actress Sally Field\u2019s embarrassing acceptance speech at the 1985 Academy Awards:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22,722],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Jz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6606,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/bruce-thornton-on-secure-freedom-radio-with-frank-gaffney\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":0},"title":"Bruce Thornton on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Jones, Bruce Thornton, Peter Pham, Diana West October 9th, 2013\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0Comments SETH JONES, Associate Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation, joins guest host DAN BONGINO, to help explain the terror threat from and historical background of the terrorist organization al-Shabaab. BRUCE THORNTON, a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":868,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/appeasement-bode-war-not-peace\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":1},"title":"Appeasement Bode War Not Peace","author":"victorhanson","date":"April 3, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Scambray New Oxford Review A review of\u00a0The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens, Munich, and Obama's America\u00a0by Bruce S. Thornton. (Encounter Books, 2011 pp. 283) Winston Churchill famously said, \"An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile hoping it will eat him last.\" In\u00a0The Wages of Appeasement: Ancient Athens,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5553,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-resolution-at-all-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":2},"title":"No Resolution At All","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the U.N. can't solve the problem of Hezbollah by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror. According to the resolution, the current impotent U.N.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5142,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/no-resolution-at-all\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":3},"title":"No Resolution At All","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Why the U.N. can't solve the problem of Hezbollah. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers The U.N. resolution that supposedly will solve the problem of Hezbollah is a perfect example of the delusions inhibiting the West in its fight against jihadist terror. According to the resolution, the current impotent U.N.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. 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